1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly to a refrigerator door for opening or closing a storage cavity formed in a refrigerator body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As generally known in the art, a refrigerator generates cold air through a refrigeration cycle and supplies such cold air into a refrigerating compartment and a freezing compartment to keep freshness of foodstuffs stored in the refrigerating compartment and the freezing compartment for a long period of time.
Currently available large-sized refrigerators have dispensers allowing users to draw out water or ice cubes without opening refrigerator doors. Since a user can draw out water or ice cubes through such a dispenser without opening refrigerator doors, cold air contained in a storage cavity of a large-sized refrigerator may not exhaust to an exterior and users may conveniently use the large-sized refrigerator.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a conventional refrigerator. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional refrigerator includes a refrigerator body 11 having a refrigerating compartment 12 and a freezing compartment therein. A plurality of shelves 13 are provided in the refrigerating compartment 12 and the freezing compartment in such a manner that foodstuffs or articles can be placed thereon.
The refrigerating compartment 12 and the freezing compartment are opened or closed by means of doors 15 and 15′. The doors 15 and 15′ are rotatably coupled to the refrigerator body 11 by means of hinge devices provided at upper and lower side edges of the refrigerator body 11.
Each of doors 15 and 15′ includes an outer case 15a made from steel and an inner case 15b made from synthetic resin, forming an external appearance of the doors 15 and 15′. The inner case 15b forms a rear surface of each door. In addition, an insulation layer 15d is provided in an internal space formed between the outer case 15a and the inner case 15b.
Generally, pigments, such as paints, are coated on an outer surface of the outer case 15a so as to improve an aesthetic value of the doors 15 and 15′. Additionally, a tempered glass 17 can be attached to the doors 15 and 15′. Reference numeral 15c represents a door grip.
In addition, a dispenser 20 is provided in a front surface of the door 15 of the freezing compartment. A user can draw out water or ice cubes through the dispenser 20 without opening the doors 15 and 15′ of the refrigerator. The dispenser 20 is installed in a recess 21 formed at the outer case 15a of the door 15.
The dispenser 20 includes an actuating lever 22 installed at an upper wall of the recess 21. In addition, a discharge port 24 is formed in the upper of the recess 21 adjacent to the actuating lever 22. The discharge port 24 is opened/closed according to a movement of the actuating lever 22. A water collecting section 26 is formed at a bottom wall of the recess 21 so as to collect waste water.
However, the above-mentioned conventional refrigerator door has problems as follows.
Firstly, in order to fabricate the conventional door 15, the outer case 15a is assembled with the inner case 15b by filling a foaming agent therebetween, and the tempered glass 17 is attached to the front surface of the outer case 15a. At this time, a color of the tempered glass 17 is determined to meet the demand of consumers.
However, since an external appearance of the dispenser 20 is formed by a part of the outer case 15a, the dispenser 20 has a color the same as a color of the outer case 15a. Thus, according to the conventional refrigerator door 15, it is necessary to match the color of the dispenser 20 with the color of the tempered glass 17 when fabricating the dispenser 20.
Accordingly, manufactures must fabricate the door 15 by using an outer case having the color identical to the color of the tempered glass 17, causing problems in material management and inventory management and increasing manufacturing costs.